Select Committee on European Scrutiny Sixteenth Report


6  REGULATION OF AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA SERVICES

(27133)
15983/05
COM(05) 646


+ ADD 1

+ ADD 2
Draft Directive amending Council Directive 89/552/EEC on the coordination
of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in
Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities
  
  
Impact assessment of the draft Directive
  
Statistical annex


Legal baseArticles 47(2) and 55 EC; co-decision; QMV
Document originated13 December 2005
Deposited in Parliament 5 January 2006
DepartmentCulture, Media and Sport
Basis of consideration EM of 19 January 2006
Previous Committee Report None
To be discussed in Council No date set
Committee's assessmentPolitically important
Committee's decisionNot cleared; further information requested

Background

6.1 Scheduled television broadcasts can be received by analogue and digital televisions (terrestrial, satellite and cable) and the Internet. They are regulated by the 1989 Television without Frontiers Directive (TVWF).[25]

6.2 The TVWF requires every Member State to ensure that all scheduled television broadcasts by broadcasters within its jurisdiction comply with the rules contained in the Directive (or with its own stricter rules) about protection of public access to broadcasts about events of major importance; freedom for broadcasts transmitted in one Member State to be received in others; the proportion of broadcasts of European origin (quotas); the duration and content of advertising and teleshopping; the protection of minors; the prohibition of incitement to hatred on grounds of race, sex, religion or nationality; and rights of reply.

6.3 Article 47(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community (the EC Treaty) authorises the Council to issue Directives for the coordination of Member States' laws on "the taking-up and pursuit of activities as self-employed persons" by the nationals of one Member State in the territory of another Member State. Article 55 of the EC Treaty applies Articles 45 to 48 to the matters covered in Chapter 3 (Services) of the Treaty. Those Articles are concerned with the establishment of the nationals and companies of one Member State in the territory of another State.

The document

6.4 The Commission distinguishes between:

  • linear services — scheduled broadcasts, the order of which the viewer cannot change; and
  • non-linear services — audiovisual programmes available to the viewer on-demand (not scheduled by the broadcaster).

6.5 At present, linear services are regulated by the TVWF, while non-linear services are regulated by the e-Commerce Directive[26] and are not subject to the same requirements about, for example, the protection of minors.

6.6 After consulting the industry, consumer groups and Member States, the Commission has proposed this draft Directive with the aim of:

  • making all audiovisual media services (linear and non-linear) subject to the same minimum requirements; and
  • modernising and simplifying the regulatory framework for linear services.

The Commission says that the proposal is part of its commitment to better regulation.

6.7 The main provisions of the draft Directive would:

  • change the name of the 1989 Directive from the TVWF to "the Audiovisual Media Services Directive";
  • prohibit a Member States from restricting access to a non-linear service transmitted from another Member State;
  • require Member States to ensure that non-linear service providers, as well as linear providers, comply with the rules in a new version of Article 3(b) to (h) of the TVWF; and
  • simplify the rules applying to advertising and teleshopping in linear broadcasts — for example, to remove the requirement that advertising and teleshopping should not exceed 20% of daily output, while retaining the requirement that it should not exceed 20% of hourly output; and, to give another example, to replace the present requirement that films may be interrupted by advertising or teleshopping only once in every 45 minutes and news and children's programmes may be interrupted once every 20 minutes by a new requirement that films, news and children's programmes may be interrupted once in every 35 minutes.

6.8 The new Article 3 would make non-linear services and linear services subject to the same minimum requirements about:

  • access to short reports on events of high interest to the public;
  • the name and address of the service provider;
  • the protection of minors;
  • the prohibition of incitement to hatred;
  • the promotion of work of European origin;
  • the contents of advertising; and
  • the sponsorship of audiovisual services (for example, tobacco companies would not be able to sponsor a linear or non-linear programme).

6.9 The proposed Directive would apply to audio visual media services which provide moving images to the public over the Internet; mobile networks; terrestrial, satellite and cable networks; and any other electronic network. It would not apply to sound-only services and electronic versions of newspapers and magazines.

6.10 ADD 1 contains detailed information about the proposal and assesses its impact and the impact of two other options. ADD 2 contains statistics on, for example, the penetration of digital television in Europe.

The Government's view

6.11 The Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (James Purnell) tells us that in July 2005 the Commission invited comments on papers about six key issues affecting the TVWF. The UK Presidency joined the Commission in hosting a conference in September to discuss the papers and the Government sent the Commission its own comments on them in November. The Government has set up a group which includes broadcasters, independent service providers, mobile phone operators, software companies and non-governmental organisations to discuss the Commission's proposals and other TVWF questions.

6.12 The Government will now consult formally on the draft Directive. The responses will be taken into account in the preparation of the Government's Regulatory Impact Assessment and Small Firms Impact Assessment of the measure.

6.13 The Minister says that:

    "The UK Government has serious reservations about important aspects of these proposals. The discussions which we have had with industry have revealed serious concerns, especially in the online, broadband and mobile sectors, that rules of the kind proposed could dampen the growth of these vitally important and rapidly developing areas.

    "Especially given that these industries are so easily portable between jurisdictions, this could prejudice the ability of the EU as a whole to meet its i2010 targets and the Lisbon Agenda. There is also a concern that the distinction between linear and non-linear services in the Commission's proposal could rapidly become redundant given the speed and dynamism with which the new media industries are developing and deploying new products with which to exploit the new technologies."

6.14 The Minister adds, however, that the Government welcomes the proposals for simplifying the regulation of traditional television broadcasting and believes this could go further.

Conclusion

6.15 We, too, welcome the Commission's proposals for simplifying the Television without Frontiers Directive. We understand the case for bringing the regulation of non-linear services closer into line with that of linear services. We note that the negotiations on the draft Directive are only just beginning. We also note that the Government has serious reservations about some aspects of the proposal.

6.16 For these reasons, we have decided to keep the document under scrutiny pending further information from the Minister about:

  • the outcome of the Government's consultations on the draft Directive;
  • the substance of the Government's reservations; and
  • the progress of the negotiations.

6.17 Finally, we note that the TVWF Directive was extensively amended by the 1997 Directive. The Commission is now proposing yet more amendments. This would make it even more difficult for the public, service providers, regulators and Member States to understand the Community's legislation on audiovisual media services. We hope, therefore, that the Minister will seek to persuade the Council that it would be desirable to bring together all the relevant EC legislation into one new Directive.



25   Council Directive 89/552/EEC (OJ No. L 298, 17.10.1989, p.23) as amended by Directive 97/36/EC (OJ No. L 202, 30.7.1997, p.60). Back

26   Directive 2000/31/EC: OJ No. L, 178, 17.7.2000, p.1. Back


 
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